Thank you so much for the feedback! I really appreciate it.
It is a bit worrying that the controls are not very intuitive, because this probably affects the AI's win-rate by a lot in their favor. The AI may seem more intelligence than it actually is because of this.
If I may ask further - do you feel that the issue is solely in the controls or is the inherit mechanic of how the player interacts with the ball hard to control/play with? I hope to revisit the controls some time after the thesis is complete, so the game could be more enjoyable as a "game" and less as just an "experimental thesis project".